Plenty of Ways to Give Back

By Jenny Bolsky, CPA

I want to remind you of some of the ways CalCPA serves our community. Needless to say, it is our member volunteers—who selflessly give their time and energy—that make these programs work.

You probably are familiar with the volunteer tax assistance programs we provide for low-income individuals. This is a valuable service to many families and individuals who need help maximizing tax-savings opportunities and credits they don’t fully understand and may not even be aware of. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Lanyce Mills at lmills@williamsribb.com.

At the local level, CalCPA has a mentoring program. As you know, mentoring is the process by which someone with knowledge and experience provides guidance and support to a less experienced person. The chapter’s Mentoring and Internship Program is designed to encourage, assist and inspire accounting students who wish to be mentored.

Typically, mentoring activities include one-on-one discussions, job shadowing, site tours, active listening and possibly internships. The goal is for seasoned professionals to share experiences and wisdom to foster interest and growth in our field and to develop future leaders. We can help those entering the profession meet the challenges of public and private accounting by sharing expectations, providing insight into the politics of the profession and giving advice on how to flourish in the business world.

Our website serves as a tool to match mentors with mentees and foster connections. Mentors include CPAs and CPA candidates in both public and private practice, as well as educators. I encourage you to check out the program and share this resource with anyone you know who is entering the profession. You may also wish to consider volunteering to be a mentor in our program. If so, contact Sandy Benitez, our chapter’s program associate.

CalCPA’s financial literacy program, known as Dollars & Sense, consists of workshops led by volunteer CPAs and hosted by legislators, community groups, schools and businesses. The idea is to leverage the resources of our profession to improve Californians’ financial literacy. This program provides tips on money management, improving savings, investment strategies, tax savings and more.

Each workshop includes a presentation and dynamic Q&A, so participants walk away with valuable information that meets their financial needs and helps them build financial security. The workshops can also be customized to meet the demands and interests of specific groups, such as kids, teens or seniors. Some suggested topics include home ownership, life crisis, retirement, sandwich generation and small-business advice. Workshops are provided by CalCPA’s dedicated volunteers, and are especially appreciated because we are not selling anything—we are simply providing objective, straightforward, financial education.

To request a Dollars & Sense event in your community, contact Crystil Turner, community outreach manager, via e-mail or phone (650) 802-2494. Or consider the rewards of participating as a financial literacy volunteer. If you are interested, go online.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 2:29 pm and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.